Tradition

/tɹəˈdɪʃ.ən/ · noun

Meaning

A part of culture that is passed from person to person or generation to generation, possibly differing in detail from family to family, such as the way to celebrate holidays..

Definitions by Sense

1. A part of culture that is passed from person to person or generation to generation, possibly differing in detail from family to family, such as the way to celebrate holidays.
2. A commonly held system.
3. An established or distinctive style or method:
4. The act of delivering into the hands of another; delivery.
5. (textual criticism) The entirety of a text's transmission; all the versions of a work.
6. (obsolete) To transmit by way of tradition; to hand down.

Example Sentences

After breakfast, Charles Macdoodle told Lady Mary that it was a tradition in the family that those rumbling carriages on the terrace betokened death.

Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, "tradition" should positively be discouraged.

Evidently he did not mean to be a mere figurehead, but to carry on the old tradition of Wilsthorpe's; and that was considered to be a good thing in itself and an augury for future prosperity.

The tradition continues today. Twenty-four-year-old Aziza Tojiyeva, who lives in a small village about 50 kilometers (30 miles) outside of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, learned how to embroider from her mother, Mukhabbat Kuchkarova, who learned from her own grandmother.

They followed the tradition of lighting candles for special occasions.

Following tradition, the victorious athlete runs a lap around the track.

A deed takes effect only from this tradition or delivery; for, if the date be false or impossible, the delivery ascertains the time of it.

It is, for example, apparent, in light of further research and when considering more manuscripts, that the manuscript tradition of the Life of Kiros (a very widespread hagiographical text) is much more complex than he had thought (Marrassini 2004; see Krzyżanowska 2015).

Synonyms for tradition

Antonyms for tradition

Related Words

Word Forms

• traditions
• traditioning
• traditioned

Usage Notes

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